Stephen Harper’s tired and rudderless government has suddenly changed course four times on issues of significance to Canadians since Parliament resumed.
48 hours – Changing the lyrics to “O Canada”
After first announcing plans to change the lyrics to Canada’s national anthem in the Speech from the Throne on the afternoon of March 3, 2010, following a public outcry the Conservatives announced that they would no longer be changing the words to “O Canada” late Friday afternoon on March 5, 2010.
24 hours – Cancelling funding to the Community Access Program
On March 9, 2010, rural and remote schools, libraries and community centres began receiving letters from Industry Canada announcing that funding for internet access was about to be cut off. Liberals protested this decision as soon as we learned of it on the afternoon of March 15, 2010.
Caving to opposition pressure and outrage from rural and remote communities, Minister Clement backtracked one day later, when he told the House of Commons, “Mr. Speaker, indeed, I can confirm that this particular Internet access program is being funded. It has been funded in budget 2010. The funding was always there.”
25 hours (or 7 minutes) – Wasting taxpayer funds on “ten-percenter” attack mailings
The Harper Conservatives voted against the Liberal motion to ban out-of-riding ten-percenter attack mail on the evening of March 16, 2010. After the motion passed, the Liberals made clear their plans to immediately suspend further printing of all out-of-riding ten-percenters.
The next day, 7 minutes after the Prime Minister addressed the issue in Question Period, the Prime Minister’s Office issued a notice via Twitter to clarify his comments, maintaining their plan to continue using the attack mailings at taxpayer’s expense.
However by 7 PM that same evening, media reports appeared in which the Prime Minister’s spokersperson, Dimiti Soudas, confirmed that the “Conservative caucus supports eliminating out-of-riding ten-percenters so long as this restriction applies to all parties.”
50 hours (or 5 weeks) – Excluding contraception from the maternal and child health initiative
On February 2, 2010, the Liberals demanded that the Conservatives include access to a full range of family planning options in their maternal and child health initiative. On February 10, 2010, Embassy Newspaper reported, “CIDA Minister Bev Oda says the government’s child and maternal health strategy will not address unsafe abortions in developing countries or support access to family planning and contraceptives.”
On Tuesday March 16, during a House of Commons committee hearing, Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon made clear that the maternal health initiative “does not deal in any way, shape or form with family planning” – including contraception.
Two days later, Minister Bev Oda reversed a position she had defended a day earlier when she told the House of Commons, “As we have been saying all along, we are not closing the door on any options that will save the lives of mothers and children, including contraception.”
